Railroaders' Nostalgia > Engineer's best friend, day or night!

I have fond memories from the summer of 1978 of one of my initial Santa Fe working trips out of Emporia, KS. With my seniority not even a month old it was only my 5th westbound trip -my 2nd in night time darkness- through the Kansas Flint Hills. I clearly remember the warm July night. I was head brakeman on a hot westbound manifest (309?). We had just passed by west Cassoday, KS at track speed when an amazing sight presented itself. A graceful left-hand curve put us on a tangent with the signal governing east Aikman easily visible about 2 miles away. The high green signal was shimmering brightly off the 2 rails between us & the east switch. I recall making a comment to my engineer: “That green signal up there sure is bright off of those rails”. And he replied with a few sage words this young brakie never forgot: “Just remember son, that green shine is an engineer’s best friend. Which means it’s YOUR best friend, too!”

In somewhat of a miracle moment that this brand new brakeman/railfan never replied back. As if I actually had anything to reply with from an experience standpoint. I think the excitement & newness of my employment situation coupled with the beautiful green shimmer put a hook in me and kept me respectfully quiet! Because it was still so new, I wanted to soak it all in. I knew sights and sounds like this would become routine very quickly. With my eyes & ears I tried to record everything. The right-of-way scenery slipping by into darkness. The stately profile of my veteran engineer sitting behind the console at the throttle. The drone of the engine & the sound of the horn from inside the cab. I remember looking from the left hand seat, realizing I was a railfan LOOKING OUT the windows of a locomotive cab, instead of the usual view from the ground. I had made it into the cab & to the mountain top (as it were). I was a lucky railfan newly entered into Santa Fe train service. It may have been well after midnight, but I had no trouble staying alert the rest of that night trip.

I just couldn’t keep from staring at that bright green shimmer. Rolling west it was almost hypnotic the way that bright green slowly grew in size. Of course, the slowness was just an illusion. The closer we got the faster it grew. Until finally that dazzling bright green glow flashed out of eyesight up & to the right at 70 MPH. It was an inspiring moment for this 23 year old kid. Over the course of my train service career I would often see a clear signal at night and drift back to July 1978, aboard a night train. I may be retired now, but I can still be swept back: In gathering darkness just a few nights ago I stood and watched a Union Pacific stack train sweep by a bright green signal in Dwight, KS. Once again I was taken back 38 years into the past, to another railroad a little further down in the Flint Hills of Kansas…

1. & 2. At 8:09 PM a westbound UP stacker is about to “take” the green/clear signal at the west end of 2 main tracks at Dwight, KS.
2 photos taken March 16, 2016.

Thanks for listening!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

PS: I’m sure many of you rails here on TO have similar stories. That’s the beauty –and the privilege- of being a railfan/railroader…



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/16 08:49 by santafe199.

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Lance:  there is a big difference looking at an older signal with the magnifying lens and the new LED signals as far as brightness goes, right?

tomstp Wrote: > ... difference looking at an older signal ... and the new LED signals as far as brightness goes...
Yes, there sure is. I've seen the difference in a few places on both BNSF & the UP since ending my career in 2010. It would have been nice, but I never had the chance to run in territory with LED signals. A very reliable source has told me they're a Godsend!

Lance/199

I love the new LED signals, they are way way better to run on than the older bulb ones. But it sucks when you have LED and regular bulb signals mixed. The led ones always look closer and drown out other signals.

Posted from Android

DG .
Unknown, US

Great story Lance! It puts me back to my first days on the Penn Central in 1974. But the circumstances with eastern railroading were quite different then.. A non-stop trip on a 132 mile division took 8.5 hours. Top speed was 40 and that was only for 10 miles. The rest was 30, but there were over 12 - 10 mph slow orders strategically placed throughout the trip. I remember being on duty for 8 hours and only getting to the first siding south of Selkirk at Coxsackie NY and thinking "I am going to do this for the next 40 years???"  I always longed to work for the SP or Santa Fe...Thanks for the posting!  Great pictures as usual.

casavoye Wrote: > ... A non-stop trip on a 132 mile division took 8.5 hours. Top speed was......
OUCH! I guess the Santa Fe spoiled me. We could (for example) make a trip down to Wellington & double back within 8 hours on a fairly routine basis. I'm sure there were many other places around the country where doubling back was routine. But with the longer runs now between 200 & 300 miles those days are all but gone. I guess the savings in crew costs helped defray any rises in fatigue-related accidents the longer runs caused. But that's a whole other can of worms...

Lance/199